About Us

H. Wolcott Toll

Wolky TollH. Wolcott Toll
OAS Research Associate and former project director
505-476-4406
wolky.toll@dca.nm.gov

Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder, 1985

Although OAS has provided opportunities to work in many parts of New Mexico, much of my career has been consumed by Chaco archaeology. I worked on the National Park Service Chaco Project from 1976 to 1986, wrote my dissertation on Chaco, and have been involved with the various synthesis efforts up to the present. It has, therefore, been a privilege to work on the OAS La Plata Highway Project in the Totah (the Navajo name for the area where the Animas and La Plata Rivers join the San Juan River), an important and under-researched part of the Chaco world. Our work in the La Plata Valley involved a broad spectrum of time and structures, ranging from A.D. 550 to 1200. The project has provided us with large samples of materials and features to better understand this time and place and how it relates to the bigger picture.

In the last few years I have had opportunities to work in and around Santa Fe, most recently and notably in the Galisteo Basin, mapping for the Galisteo Basin Initiative and on the Galisteo Basin site assessment project.